On Sunday, February 23, just a week before director Malcolm Clarke and producer Nicholas Reed would take the prize for best documentary short at the 86th annual Academy Awards, the main subject of their film quietly fell to sleep for the last time at a London hospital, 110 years of age.

Dmitry Trakovsky is the director of "Meeting Andrei Trakovsky", an award-winning documentary that led him on a journey around the globe to meet and interview friends and collaborators of the late Russian filmmaker. On Wednesday, February 19, at our Heart's Home center in Brooklyn, NY, he was joined by Michal Leszczylowski, editor on Tarkovsky's ultimate masterpiece "The Sacrifice", to share their own experience of "meeting Andrei Tarkovsky." An exclusive and vivid portrait of the one whom Bergman and Kurosawa themselves regarded as a master of the 7th Art. (Excerpts from the Q&A following the screening).

Each year at this time of the year, New York City breathes, talks, and walks fashion, runway and clothes. Jessica “Jesse” Lagoy, a professional model from DC, stepped out the catwalk this year, to meet and interview creators and other fashion protagonists for the blog heyheygorgeous.com. In this exclusive interview for Land of Compassion, she accepted to share her insights about fashion, beauty, and more.

As I reflect back on a recent development in my life, I realize that nothing is permanent, all is transient and subject to change. Suffice it to be open and sensitive to capture its transformation.

My grandfather was a survivor of the Armenian genocide, which took place during World War I with the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its minority subjects. He had managed to escape Turkey after multiple life and death ordeals via Syria, to eventually settle down in Lebanon and become a very successful entrepreneur, businessman and writer. The Civil War of Lebanon (1975 – 1990), was the second tragedy he survived during his lifetime. It brought an abrupt interruption to the once joyful and vibrant life my grandparent’s family led, forcing them to abandon, like many, their house along with their priced belongings and heritage, to seek peace abroad.

"Advertising, says Wikipedia, is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience," and the best way to manipulate is to appeal to the basest instincts. However, once in while, we get surprised. In this commercial for Sony, the Japanese brand appeals to our highest instinct: the sense of beauty and wonder. The 1min30 video is an intimate glimpse into the work of some of Japan's craftsmen: fabric dyeing, paper making, ceramics and gardening . . . The last words, in Japanese, translate: "This country's natural instinct is to lean towards beauty." How many problems and situations would be simplified if we were led by a "natural instinct towards beauty" ! This commercial does play its part in educating it in the viewer.

“Being in dance let’s me see who I'm becoming,” said Kiana, a freshman at John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls’ High School in inner city Philadelphia. She added my ‘Introduction to Dance’ class to her schedule last fall with no idea it would bring about a re-direction or clarified purpose for her life. All she knew was that she liked to groove, and figured this class would let her do so with no questions asked . . .